Tactics/Strategy in Engine Games

General discussion about computer chess...
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Swaminathan
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Tactics/Strategy in Engine Games

Post by Swaminathan » Sun Jun 27, 2010 6:29 pm

My observation is that tactics rarely happens in computer vs computer games which is why most engines ratings closely correlate with their STS results.
I've gone through 10,000 games manually to select 2500 positions. If tactics ever happens in engine games, it's usually when the engine is already very advantageous.

For humans, tactics/combinations is a lot important. Whoever finds tactics first,..... wins.
For engines, strategy/positional understanding is important. Engine will usually easily solve *most* tactical positions. Whichever finds the genuine positional idea, controls the game with small + score (0.30 or so) and eventually wins....
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aiorla
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Real Name: Aitor Ortiz de Latierro Olivella

Re: Tactics/Strategy in Engine Games

Post by aiorla » Sun Jun 27, 2010 6:47 pm

That's true, but the tactics doesn't happen normally because the engine know what trick will have done to itself, and it avoids that lines. To find that defenses, you have to know lots of tactics too ;)
And IMO I think that strategy is the more "human" part of chess, making it the more difficult for the engines and the part that can be improved more by programmers.

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